“Zhoghovurd” is seriously concerned over Tuesday’s violent attacks on opposition supporters in the Armenian village of Jrarat, accusing the authorities of increasingly resorting to violence in the ongoing parliamentary race. “It has to be noted that the authorities have managed to lower these parliamentary elections, which are the only mechanism for forming government in Armenia for the next five years, to a level of elections of neighborhood thugs, discrediting it as a result,” writes the paper. “High-ranking policemen behave like neighborhood thugs when they personally take part in brawls … It’s obvious that the police do not control the situation.”
“Mainly affluent persons run for parliament these days and they hardly aim to make fortunes with the help of parliamentary mandates,” writes “Hayots Ashkhar.” “The problem is different. People make serious expenditures in order to maintain or enhance their status, to join the elite and so on. This could indirectly help them secure or at least preserve their assets.”
“Hraparak” accuses Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian and Justice Minister Arpine Hovannisian of using their position and government resources to campaign for the ruling Republican Party (HHK) and “mislead people about that miracles which they will achieve in case of remaining in power.” “The HHK elite has decided that these three individuals holding important posts must serve the nation primarily by earning the HHK votes and that, according to the Central Election Commission, is not a violation of the law,” complains the paper.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” predicts that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will feature large during President Serzh Sarkisian’s talks in Moscow on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Their previous meeting, also dominated by the Karabakh issue, took place in August. “During these past six months the Russian side has done everything to prevent a return to their interrupted conversation and appears to have failed to succeed for the first time in the long history of Russian-Armenian relations,” speculates the paper. It says Moscow has exerted “diplomatic and military pressure” to clinch more Armenian concessions to Baku.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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